The group expects to report a first-half pre-tax loss of around £30m after taking a £50m hit from aggressive cash-generation measures, including deeper sales discounts, accelerated asset sales and write-downs on low-margin sites.

The embattled partnership homes giant also announced that finance chief Tim Lawlor has handed in his resignation to take up a CFO role in a large privately-owned business in a different sector.

He will remain with the business until October to support the ongoing business review and publication of first half results.

In a half-year trading update, new chief executive Adam Daniels predicted the recently announced company voluntary redundancy scheme would generate £25m in overhead savings, while slowing build out rates on site would improve cashflow.

He revealed average daily net debt climbed to £799m during the first half, while net debt stood at £470m at the end of June.

He said borrowings had increased because Vistry had paid down land creditors, improved payment times for suppliers and subcontractors and completed fewer partner-funded deals than a year earlier.

Daniels, who took over three months ago, said the business was deliberately taking painful short-term decisions to create a stronger long-term financial footing.

He said: “We are treating 2026 as a transition year to reposition the business to operate with significantly and sustainably lower financial leverage and healthy profitability.”

The builder has already more than halved its stock of unsold private homes under construction from around £600m at the start of the year to below £300m and is scaling back land buying while reshaping its landbank.

It is also slowing private site starts, reducing exposure to higher-value homes and exiting its part-exchange business to release capital.

Despite completing around 6,100 homes in the first half, down from 6,889 last year, Vistry maintained a sales rate in line with last year. However, discounts on private homes jumped sharply to 7.1% from 1.4% as it cleared slower-moving stock.

The company predicted cash generation would accelerate in the second half and was still targeting a net cash position of more than £100m by the end of the year.

A wider strategic review due in September is expected to deliver a leaner regional structure.

The board said full-year adjusted pre-tax profit remained on track to meet current market expectations of around £200m, excluding any impact from the ongoing CEO review.